In computerized gaming, involving casino game or lottery game types, there is usually a bet and a possible winning prize payback at stake. A player may be about to win when interruption occurs and thus may be deprived of his winning play or his payout if the game is not resumed after the interruption. Gaming systems are usually also subject to strict control from authorities that require game record keeping for audit purposes, and it is not acceptable for game records to deviate from factual payouts. It is therefore important for the credibility of the gaming operator to manage interruption and game resumption in a secure and correct manner.
In computerized gaming systems where gaming machines, for example slot machines or poker machines, are connected to a game server there are for inter alia the above reasons high demands on the uptime and the operability of the system. The gaming system must be insensitive to interruptions in communications between the gaming machines and the game server.
Computerized gaming systems have traditionally been designed with a high level of local autonomy on the part of the gaming machine in relation to the game server. As a consequence, the possibility to rationalize the management of gaming system by means of common server resources has been utilized only to a small extent. There is a need for improving the efficiency of computerized gaming systems, and one way to do this is by increasing the usage of the server resources. Consequently there is a need for increasing the reliability and availability of these server resources.